Asami Inoue

Early Life

Eldest daughter of a Japanese-Belizean Father whose family originally came from Brazil and a Cuban-American Mother from Havana, Asami had a varied childhood to say the least. Growing up on Earth in the 2360s meant Asami and her siblings wanted for nothing. Living in one of the most idyllic parts of paradise sheltered them from the goings on of the greater galaxy and that’s how her family liked it. Her mother Caitlin, a Marine Biologist, was perfectly happy spending her time in the Ocean and her father Javier, a Veterinarian, spent most of his time either at his clinic or volunteering at the local aquarium. Her parents actually met when Koji was called in to deal with one of Caitlin’s sick specimens. Because they had such a diverse background, Asami had extended family all over both North and South America as well as parts of Asia, their family traveling, often visiting relatives. As a young girl Asami found she shared her mother’s affinity for the ocean and as a teen, would often join her mother on dives. She would have considered doing it professionally, possibly even following her mother into Marine Biology were it not for an uncle that had gotten her a telescope when she was eight. A bit of an old fashioned ideal, but Asami loved it. She’d spend hours outside looking at the stars and often refused to travel without her telescope. Although she was growing up in an era where space travel was the norm and Humans no longer had to wonder if they were alone in the universe, Asami didn’t want to just read about other people’s discoveries, she wanted to be a part of them.

There weren’t exactly a lot of opportunities to follow her dream in Belize but when she stumbled across one, Asami was sure to take advantage of it. These dreams were somewhat curtailed during the Klingon Conflict and during the Dominion War. But still, each time Asami kept coming back, eager to learn more of the heavens. Seeing that they couldn’t provide their daughter the future she wanted at home, her mother arranged it so Asami could finish High School with some extended family in New York. Despite the opportunity presented, Asami didn’t want to go. All she could see was that she was being sent away from her home to live with people she barely knew. She didn’t believe her parents’ promises that they’d see her all the time, that they’d transport all the time and when they couldn’t transport they’d comm. She didn’t understand that she needed to live in New York if she wanted to attend the Bronx Science Academy. Despite her ‘reservations’ Asami made the move up to New York a few weeks later. Strangely enough, she also felt excitement at leaving at being in this new place. It was all so confusing and she felt more than a little guilty. At first she refused to leave her room, but as her parents comm’d and the rest of the family visited often she was coaxed from her room. Once they were able to get Asami out of the house, she finally started to notice the completely new world around her.

New York was so incredibly different from San Pedro, where everyone knew everyone and if you didn’t know someone they were a tourist. What struck her most were the aliens. In San Pedro and in fact the whole of Ambergris Caye she’d rarely see any. The human population might have been rather diverse but Aliens were few and far between. Sure, you would run into some every once in awhile and when she did Asami had been terribly interested, but this was so very different. The Aliens she had met before had always stood out at least to the locals; everyone would notice when they entered a restaurant, lay out on the beach or even walk down the street. It wasn’t hostile just simple curiosity. But in New York, humans and more kinds of aliens than she had ever seen, walked next to each other without a second look. It was weeks before Asami could stop staring and months before she’d stop annoying people on the street with constant questions.

Bronx Science Academy

Once she had accepted her new surroundings Asami began the application process for BSA. The many interviews and tests were rigorous and she’d often come home at the end of the day worried that she had messed things up somehow. When she finally got word that she’d been accepted she rushed off to the local transport center and spent three weeks’ worth of credits getting back to San Pedro to tell her family. To celebrate they did a mini food tour of Manhattan and her family stayed in the city as they got closer and closer to the new school year starting. Admittedly Asami was depressed when her parents and siblings had to leave; it took her weeks to get over it. But really it was hard for her to stay down, simply put, Asami loved the Bronx Science Academy, there were so many interesting subjects and their astronomy programs are some of the best on the planet. Because she is a new transfer Asami is assigned second year student: Keanna McKenna as a mentor/guide to help her acclimate to the school and the city.

At first Asami was shy around this older girl who seemed to move about the campus and the city with a comfortable grace that Asami never believed she would have. Even after living there for months she still used the map program installed on her PADD. Really, she was in awe of Keanna not just because of her confidence but the other girl was so kind to her. She’d hear some of the other new students talk about how their guide did only the bare minimum or always seemed annoyed when they were asked the simplest things. None of the negative comments seemed to fit her guide; she went out of her way to help Asami, to make sure she was doing alright at home and at school, they’d often eat together at lunch and hang out in the city. After a while it was rare to see them apart at all.

Despite how much she was beginning to enjoy herself, Asami still missed home. There were just so many new challenges to face both from the city itself and the people she was meeting. The first time she experienced a ‘blizzard’ she freaked out and stayed with Keanna’s family for three days while the storm hit. At first she was simply freaked, but once she got a chance to play around in the snow she enjoyed herself Her other friends thought it was silly but Keanna understood and thankfully so did her aunt and uncle. They really were great people, always understanding that Asami had places that she felt more like home than where she was living. No matter how comfortable she was at her aunt’s or even at Keanna’s, neither location as able to replace San Pedro as home. The thing she missed most was having easy access to the water. Back in San Pedro Asami would only need to grab a swim suit or her scuba and walk to the beach. But in the city she couldn’t just go to the water (nor would you really want to); if she wanted to swim, she had to find a pool and if she wanted to dive she had to find a holodeck. So she visited as often as she could, sometimes only back for a few short hours, but it was enough. She’d even bring a few of her new friend along to meet the family and see the island although Keanna was really the only regular guest. By the time her third year rolled around her visits had become more infrequent yet complicated affairs.

Asami was devastated when Keanna graduated and moved to San Francisco to attend Starfleet Academy. And while her brother coming to Bronx Science was nice, it didn’t hold a candle to having Keanna around. They had been together for years and suddenly she found herself without her best friend, her right hand. It felt like when she had first arrived in the overwhelming and cold. It took a lot of time and a new student of her own but Asami eventually got over these feelings. It didn’t hurt that Keanna had stayed in regular contact all through these long months. She’d kept Asami occupied with stories from the Academy; it didn’t matter if it was just an overview of one of the lessons or the hottest gossip, she was enraptured. Asami had never really considered what Starfleet was or what they did. Not many people from San Pedro joined; they really were a rather isolated community. From what her parents had told her Asami hadn’t thought it would be something for her. Far too much military focus for her tastes. But the more she heard from Keanna the more curious she got. When she admitted this to Keanna, the other girl got Asami a pass and invited her to visit for a week.

Transporting into San Francisco she was blown away, it was so different than San Pedro and New York, yet in its own quirky way, was far more beautiful. The old architecture standing out from the new, the new architecture attempting to blend into the old. It was strange but really caught Asami’s eye. But if San Francisco was beautiful, she didn’t have a description for how entering the academy grounds made her feel. Somehow it was peaceful and inspiring all at once she really felt like she could spend hours there, it was all a bit overwhelming. Despite this, seeing Keanna again made it all worth it. After some much needed time to catch up, Keanna gave Asami a tour of the grounds and the various satellite facilities in the Bay Area. She showed her that while Starfleet did have a military arm it wasn’t necessarily the focus, especially now that the war was over. Asami found it hard to argue when they visited lab after lab after lab, covering every conceivable avenue of research and more than few she’d never heard of. It was like a really nerdy dream come true. The rest of the week she spent attending a few of Keanna’s classes and exploring San Francisco, it all went by far too quickly. Saying goodbye to Keanna at the end of the week had to one of the hardest in her life, harder even than leaving her family a couple of years before. The other girl had yet again exposed her to something wonderful and Asami couldn’t think of an adequate way to thank her. This made her feel all the more guilty when she had to leave.

Spending the week at the Academy really put things into focus for Asami. She now she knew what she wanted; she was going to join Starfleet. While not exactly the career choice her parents had in mind when they arranged to get her into Bronx Science, they came around, especially when she reassured them she would be sticking to the sciences. The next year and a half of school seemed to just blow by; everything she did now geared toward preparing for entrance exams. It also meant she didn’t have as much time to spend with friends or family. The academy entrance requirements were far broader than she expected, delving into quite a few subjects she only had a passing familiarity with. Thankfully, because of Bronx’ heavy science focus there were a lot of other students that planned on applying and at least a dozen or so preparatory programs she could join. She struggled a bit at first but was quickly able to get the hang of things and by the time graduation rolled around she felt ready for the academy exams. Grueling seemed the best description for those last couple of weeks of school, first the test and then waiting to hear if she had passed. Truly the waiting was the worst but somehow made it all the sweeter when she got her acceptance letter.

Starfleet Academy

1st Year

Arriving at the Academy as a Cadet was somehow better than the last time; instead of being a guest looking at things from the outside she was a part of it all. She once again reunited with Keanna although they were assigned to different quads they’d still make time to hang out. Her first year was intense to say the least. Between trying to get used to the new culture she found herself in and all her courses, Asami often found herself rather worn out at the end of the day. Despite the idea that Starfleet was supposed to be less military now than it had been just a few years prior the level of hierarchy and tradition was surprising to her. But once she embraced the ideals and traditions placed upon them Asami found herself feeling rather comfortable. Once she began to see things through the eyes of someone that wasn’t just a science geek the structure wasn’t overbearing. Asami really started to embrace Academy life and her already impressive marks began to improve. This of course brought on a whole new set of headaches but now she was embracing them as challenges.

One of her favorite things to do in her first year was to explore the city; it was a bit difficult with all the different class work she had but with some help from Keanna and a few other members of her quad. It was a great time, exploring all the little gems San Francisco had to offer; specialty shops, parks and, of course, the food. It may not have had the same amount of variety based on sheer volume as New York, but in some cases the quality was far better. Interestingly, their favorite restaurant on all of Earth wasn’t in either city; Sisko’s Creole kitchen in New Orleans. Introduced to it by her roommate Helena, Asami quickly found herself becoming a regular, visiting weekly with family, friends and quadmates. She’d often get the Shrimp Creole with Tube Grub Remoulade.

2nd Year

With her first year under her belt Asami was able to declare as a science cadet and begin to tailor more of her classes to fit her specialty. It was honestly hard to choose which sub-division she wanted to focus on. The Academy offered so many courses and they all sounded so amazing she just wanted to try each one. Deciding to stick to her first loves, Asami loaded up her schedule with classes dealing with space and the ocean. As her second year went on it became clearer and clearer that Asami wouldn’t be happy just sitting in a lab studying. Her favorite courses were the ones to do with alien worlds and not just from an academic standpoint. When the Academy announced they were taking sophomore and junior applications for Cadet cruises, Asami was quick to sign up. It was a gamble of course, not every cadet got to be assigned to a deep space vessel on their field studies; most having to spend their time aboard one of the Academy training ships. Whether it was by chance, merit or divine intervention Asami wasn’t sure but she and four others were assigned a six month cruise aboard the Vesta class USS Indefatigable.

Field studies – USS Indefatigable

Serving aboard the Indefatigable was like a dream come true, not in her wildest dreams would she have expected to get such an advanced Starship for her field studies posting. It was pure chance she and other were assigned to Indefatigable, having just come off the line a couple of months before, the ship had just finished its ‘sea’ trials and was ready for it’s true shakedown cruise. The Academy decided that since they were short crew, a quad of cadets would be assigned. Serving on Indefatigable was very different from her time at the Academy. While the officers still expected the Cadets to keep their discipline at least close to Academy Standards, the rest of the crew was rather informal by comparison. Most of the missions were relatively routine but somehow Commander McKenna (Keanna’s aunt and the ship’s XO) always seemed to find something for them to do. It seemed like every week they were running into something that the Cadets could sink their teeth into. While these little excursions weren’t the grand adventures Asami had been dreaming about, they had their moments. Of all the things she saw in those six months the one thing that stuck with her the most was how the Earth looked from space; absolutely breathtaking, seemed to be the only possible description.

During this time Asami really got to know fellow science cadet Jilani Ranor. One of the first Cardassians in Starfleet Jilani was a bit of an outsider and ended up being the shy quiet type. With them both being in the sciences they ended up being partnered up a lot and as Asami got to know her, she couldn’t stop seeing a lot of herself in Jilani. So following Keanna’s example from when they were younger, Asami did her best to get to know the other woman. And it was a good thing too, not only did they have a lot in common but they got along well. Quickly becoming friends while aboard the cruise, by the time it was over the pair were practically inseparable.

3rd Year

This time returning to the Academy wasn’t as pleasant an experience as her previous ones. Her field assignment had been so much more exciting than she had imagined it would be. Now that she was back sitting in classes didn’t seem to hold a candle to being out in space. Her boredom was however quickly alleviated as this year she had far more control over her classes. Focusing more on the various science disciplines she was interested in Asami found the course work she was getting to be most enjoyable. It also happened to be some of the most challenging, although she actually liked it that way. Stellar sciences of course were her favorite, with many of the cetacean subjects coming in as a close second. The one that surprised her the most was the Zero-G training. She figured that with her fear of heights, getting through the training would be pure hell. But once she put on the suit and was out the airlock, it felt…normal, like an easy dive back home. Instead of barely passing or worse failing outright, she excelled earning one of the top scores in her training group. Seeing space, seeing earth like that was amazing to say the least. After she got back, Asami couldn’t wait to get into the water and see how it compared with EVA.

Her third year wasn’t all sunshine and pleasant courses, however. It also happened to be Keanna’s last year at the Academy. It was high school all over again; she was at a place where she was happy and her best friend would be leaving. In a way it felt silly, this was the life they both chose; you join Starfleet, you get orders and go where you’re sent. But even after two years of duty, discipline and honor being drilled into her head, that side of things didn’t feel real until now. She may have felt a bit silly at first but it gave her a chance to make the most of the few months they would both have on Earth. There may have been a small chance that Keanna would be assigned a Sol System posting, but Asami doubted it; no, Keanna would get a Starship, and she was right. It did make her realize however that next year she’d be a senior and needed to be able to handle working without Keanna there to support her. Yes she’d still have her Quad, but as a Senior (along with Helena Indrani) they would be leading their six other junior Cadets.

4th Year

Coming into her fourth year Asami felt a strange amount of calm when she was called in to assist their barracks officer. She did, however, still second guess herself from time to time and she studied all the time so she felt prepared for what was being thrown at her. Despite all this, the year just seemed to blow by, classes folded into one another and it seemed the only thing on anyone’s mind was graduation. Asami was not an exception in this, all she could think about was the end of term. She had to decide what she was going to do. When she’d first arrived at the Academy all she could think about had been getting out into space. And her short stint aboard the Indefatigable had only reinforced this desire. But over the last couple of years she realized just how many options there were for a young, go-getting scientist. There were a myriad of fellowships, research projects, continuing education courses and doctoral degrees to choose from and those were just the ones on Earth. Her choices skyrocketed as soon as she looked at assignments farther from the Sol System.

By the time they reached the mid-term break, she was glad that it was time to take her survival training module. With all the focus put onto graduation and career planning, it was nice to spend time on something immediate. Once the course started, however she realized just how mistaken she would be. In Asami’s opinion her survival strategies professor was a sadist who enjoyed watching his cadets suffer; he loved pop quizzes and surprise field drills. For his final test he separated up the cadets into various cadres, Asami, who already knew how to survive in oceanic and jungle environments, was placed in a group sent off to Vulcan’s Forge in the Cheleb-khor desert. It ended up being the hardest week of her life and was glad when it was all over.

When graduation finally rolled around, Asami had to make a decision about what assignment to request. Still not entirely sure what to do, she applied for the Academy’s College of Sciences – Science Leadership course. A six month intensive designed to give junior officers training in sciences outside of their specialties in preparation for those interested in becoming department heads. While it wasn’t common for someone freshly graduated to enroll in the course, there were always a few every year.

Asami graduated the Academy with degrees in Astronomical Science and Exo-Biology.

College of Sciences

While most freshly graduated cadets probably would have felt that an additional study course like this was a waste of time, Asami found the SLC quite rewarding. It was interesting to see the various ways Starships and Starbases had to set up their science departments to cover all fields even if they were lacking in the specialists to fill those roles. That was where General Science Officers like her filled in the gaps. The course also gave her a chance to speak with officers about the same age and hear what it was like at their various postings. At the end of the course Asami had decided that she couldn’t ignore her yearning to get back into space and requested a deep space assignment.

USS Southern Cross

Asami was more than a little surprised when right away she was posted aboard the Southern Cross as Chief Science Officer. In no way did she feel prepared enough to be the Chief Science Officer, hell despite her recent training she barely felt ready to simply be a science officer. But the brief voice communication she had with who she assumed was the CO, Asami was somehow on her way to meet up with the ship. On the bright side at least she’d been able to swing it so Jilani was with her.

Still despite her excitement, despite her fear, despite everything that made her doubt what was to come, Asami was most of all intrigued. The Cross wasn’t one of the ships she had applied to, hell she’d never even heard of it or its class. And that was it, those questions are what had her the most excited about this assignment, it’s also what scare the hell out of her.